Wednesday Randoms

• I'm not loving being a girl right now. Enough said.

• I'm in love with these boots. But for $175.99? Not in the budget right now.. Delayed gratification, delayed gratification...
• I'm so thankful for my husband. I just asked him how the finances were looking for the month (He's in charge of that area & we've been trying to stick to a conservative, yet comfortable budget) and he said that all our bills are already paid for the whole month, and Friday we'll have all debt (minus car payment, which only has a few k) eliminated. It's weird, we could pay off the car, but it helps his credit score more if we just pay little bit by little bit. Credit is weird like that. Anyway, I'm just super glad he takes care of everything. We're planning on saving a good chunk of change over the next few years for some long term investments we want to make.
• I lost 1lb!! haha! Not a huge accomplishment, but hey, it's a start! Although, with the current amount of water retention in my body, I'm guessing next week will show much better results. I spent an hour on the elliptical at the Y last night & it felt great! The carb scale-down would be going 10x better if it weren't for Honey Bunches of Oats. Gosh. I crave them all the time.. If I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, that's what I'd pick (with skim milk of course). Oh, and YAY! Lindsay! She lost 2 lbs!!
• Another hubby one- any of you married to an entrepreneur will probably say an "Amen" to this one- in the time that we've been married (a little over 2 months) here's the many different extra income options he's considered: Poly-phase farming (or something like that), Online trucking brokerage, Alpaca farming, Creating a service based consumer website that's a mash-up of craigslist, ebay, hotels.com, etc., Writing & selling covered call stock options, and today's latest: windmills. Whew.. life is never boring!! And did I mention that him 'considering' them entails researching the topic for hours on end, buying a book, and spending coutless hours thinking and trying to explain things to me. :) For those of you who've never seen an alpaca, how can you not love them?? Look:

Note: It's okay if you just fell in love.


Happy Wednesday!! :)

Perfect!

I'm writing this post mainly to get your input! So de-lurk, and let me know what you think! :)

Z and I were reading a couples devotional book last night and it was talking about how couples should expect that their spouse WILL hurt them, disappoint them, etc. We had a problem with the word WILL. We'd rather it be MAY. Maybe it's just us, but we grew up being taught that we should always expect what we want to get. No, it's not just positive thinking hype- it's proven fact. The more you expect something to go wrong, the more it will. Now, you have to be realistic and leave room for the possibility of things going wrong, but to expect that it will? That's a risky mindset to have- especially with marriage.

The way Z & I do things, we try and model Christ's teachings as much as possible. We hold eachother to very high standards. After all, that's why we're married- we fell in love (among other things) because we both expect the best out of ourselves, other people and life, and we work hard at improving. We'd finally found someone who surpassed our standards and encouraged us to raise them even more. So therefore, in our marriage, we expect the best out of eachother, and we encourage eachother to be as perfect as we can be. Now, of course we make mistakes, and have upset eachother, but because of the deep love we have for eachother, we're able to forgive.

During our pre-marital counseling, we took an assessment that was supposed to identify any potential problem areas. When the results came back- the only area of concern was that we weren't realistic. haha.. that's because we answered questions like "Do you expect that your marriage will have major problems from time to time?" with a "No". We refused to accept the notion that we're supposed to EXPECT these things.

See what I'm saying??

Matthew 5:48- "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

So.. if God didn't expect the best out of us, please explain this verse to me. And if being perfect weren't possible, then why are we commanded here to do it? Why do people get put down for being "perfectionists"? Perhaps some go too far and obsess about it and beat themselves up terribly when they mess up- that's no good. BUT- to try to be perfect - I think it's a good thing.

A lot of people give up on this pursuit because they get discouraged or they don't have enough self confidence. Romans 3:23- "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God". You're not alone! We all mess up together! But why can't we all strive to be perfect wives, mothers, daughters (as far as I know, my readers are female :) ), and Christians together?

This has just been on my heart & mind a lot and I wanted to share. If I've sounded at all condemning, that was not my intent. I just wanted to get you thinking & possibly give you some ammo to improve your relationships & yourself. Thoughts?

Weekend Recap

It seems like my weekends are just so busy all the time- I never get a chance to blog. So.. I think I'll start doing weekend recaps on Mondays- because I always do things over the weekend that I find blog-worthy- so here's the first one! (Please excuse the excessive amount of dashes in the previous sentance-- thanks.) :)

*Friday*

• a note to Zumba: Please don't feel bad, Zumba! I still love you! See.. I know almost everyone cheated on you on Friday, but I'd never leave you for the balmy 45 degree weather! It's really not a bad thing that only a few people came to see you- it meant we got some quality time! And boy, you made me feel like I was going to drop by 6:30.. but that is why I love you. Don't give up, my darling! That little hip hop twist you threw in at the end was wonderful!

*Saturday*

• Z & I went to a class at his parents' church on the Holy Spirit. It was good.. but the pastor flew through things so quickly that you couldn't dig into anything. And with a topic as complex as the Holy Spirit.. you just can't rush & skim.
• Traveled to Indiana for a birthday party for Z's cousin's wife- love her! We had a really good time! Didn't love the drive- seeing all the FLAT farmland reminds me of how much I miss New England.

Note: not my picture.. but it's actually flatter than this!

*Sunday*

• Got some MAJOR re-organizing done. Linen Closet, Storage Closet, Office drawers, Laundry room, Bathroom cabinets, Coat closet, Kitchen clutter, etc. I was happy. Cleaned the shower (I hate doing this for some reason), bathroom, dusted the whole house, did 5 loads of laundry, and Z vacuumed.
• We tood a break after some of the cleaning and ran to Menards to pick some stuff up. We got a neat shelf & I got some wooden dowels to use in making DIY curtain rods.

• When we got back to the apartment, it was nice outside so Z decided to wash our cars. While he was out in the garage, I decided to hang the canvases and letters in our guest room. I needed a hammer so I ran out to the garage to get one. Upon trying to open our front door, I realized I'd locked myself out... and neither of us had our keys. BLAH. I called the appt. manager- she lives 2 blocks away but had just given all the keys to the owner-- who had just been at our appt. -- but had just left and did not have a cell phone -- and lives 20 min. away. (WHY do you not have a cell phone if you own apartments???) OH, and I went out in just a polo so I was freezing and had to wear Z's GIANT Carhart jacket he uses to work on the cars. At the thought of being stuck out there for another hour, I sucked up the embarrassment about my attire, and wandered over to the other building where two guys were outside and asked them if they'd seen the landlord. After looking at me strangely, they said no and I walked back. Darn. So then Z decides we're going to try to break in. Luckily, I'd left the little above-the-sink window unlocked and we got it open. I wish you could have seen Z climbing up there & over the sink to get in- what a champ! :) Ugh. Remind me not to do that again.
  

Adding some color to the Guest Room

,

So in my attempt to get my apartment looking 'homey' for when my family visits, I took on a few DIY projects- here's some instructions on making a patchwork pillow:

This is the diagram I made before I started. Draw it out on paper and decide what squares are going to be what pattern. I made one centimeter on the paper equal to one inch of the actual pillow and it worked out perfectly. I color coded everything, then wrote out the dimensions of each square so I wouldn't lose track when cutting.
Then I cut each square out of the fabric and laid them out on the ground.
Then sew them together!
And sew the ends up & stuff!
Voila!! Love it??
Then I took those fabrics and stretched them over some old art canvases that I had & was tired of:
And I had some initial letters that we hung on our head table at our wedding that went perfectly.. So this is what will hang on the wall above the bed:
Anyway, I had a blast doing this project & Z was so excited about the pillow- it was cute! What do YOU think? :)

FYI

I just stumbled upon this website: www.styleforfree.com. It has tons of coupons and you can enter to win various beauty packages. I just looked around a little bit & found lots of good deals! Check it out! :)

Oh, and did I mention I love it when my mom goes outlet shopping?? She just picked me up a dusty blue down jacket from GAP for $12. *sigh*

Wednesday Randoms

EASY Dinner Idea: (as executed last night)

You need:

• Whole grain thin spaghetti (or whatever pasta) (~$1.50)
  
• A bag of stir-fry veggies (~$1.50)
• Italian Dressing (I used Kraft red pepper & parmesan Italian)
  
• Various spices (I used garlic salt, italian seasoning, and parsley)
  
• Veggie oil
• Meat- optional
  

Cook pasta. Add dressing and spices.
Cook veggies in a little veggie oil until they're starting to get browned, add spices.
If you want meat, mix it in with the veggies.
Top pasta with veggies/meat.

*I think the Parmesan in the dressing gives it a really good texture
*Add salt to taste
*Z ate it with some of the pulled pork I made him on Friday. I ate it sans meat. Both loved it.

Identity theft?Hackers?

Sunday I got a call from my credit card company saying that there was a $1 charge on my account that was suspicious, and sure enough, I hadn't authorized it! So, they're cancelling that card & sending me a new one. Freaky!!

Need for Organization

I recently have decided that I need to tackle a couple projects: a cleaning schedule and a menu plan. So hold me to it! I plan on doing both of them this weekend.

Shaping Up

As I've told you before, my family is coming to visit in the end of March. My mom and I were on the phone the other night and talking about wanting to be in better shape. She lost 15 lbs. for my wedding in November, and I probably lost a few(didn't keep track), but with the holidays and my honeymoon, we've been slacking ever since. So.. we decided to commit to lose 10 lbs. before they come to visit. 10 is a stretch for me because my body seems to want to stay at this ho-hum weight no matter what I do, but I figure if I blog about it, it'll keep me accountable! So.. I weighed in 2 days ago(Sunday) and I'll let you know this coming Sunday if I made any progress. I've been going to the Y & trying to cut all the carbs in my diet. I swear.. I'm a carb junkie- bread, cereal, pasta- it's what I crave & am used to since I didn't eat meat for so long.. so here it goes! I know Lindsay @ Learning to be a Wife is doing the same thing, so we're going to cheer eachother on!

That's all for now! Happy middle of the week!! :)

Superbowl and Breakfast

So I know the two words in the title have nothing to do with eachother, but I didn't want to split it up into two posts. So.. you get a 2-for-1.

Did you watch the Superbowl? I can say I tried. I fell asleep at the inlaws house a little before halftime. It was Z&I, his sister and boyfriend, his parents, and another couple we're friends with. But.. towards the beginning was my favorite part- the Doritos Crystal Ball commercial. Halarious! Oh, and almost as funny was when I woke up at the end and the Steelers' owner thanked President Obama. What was your favorite commercial??

Now, on to breakfast.

So today Denny's is giving away free grand slam breakfasts til 2pm. Z & were planning on a before-work date, but we totally forgot. However, I was a good wife and cooked him some sausage last night & made up an egg, cheese, and sausage breakfast sandwich this morning (mine was sans sausage). Neither of us got our usual 10am stomach growlings!! Yay for protein!Any one else get those cravings? Maybe the answer is eggs in your breakfast! :)